The line for producing and/or filling and/or packaging containers comprise a series of conveyor belts that allow the transit of said items from a work station to another or from one machine to the next, wherein such machines (for example, blowing, filling, labeling machine, etc.) are arranged according to a sequence imposed by the production/filling/packaging process. During operation, said machines require stopping times for the reinstatement of consumables, or for short maintenance; in order to prevent these stops from creating continuous downtime of the line, thereby affecting the productivity thereof, it is often necessary to create item accumulation zones between one work station and the next, which are able to contain the items processed by the upstream machines during a stop of downstream machines. Said accumulated items are put in line at the restart of said downstream machines. Said accumulation systems are generally “FIFO”, or first in first out.
Different types of accumulation tables are known; examples thereof are documents EP1390282, EP1632445, EP2459472.
The above documents describe accumulation tables comprising two flat conveyor belts, straights and side by side which move in mutually opposite direction on which movable deflector means are provided adapted to constitute a guide for the stream of the items, delimiting a transit zone of said items between the inlet and the outlet of the table that serves as a temporary storage area. The longitudinal movement of said deflector means involves an enlargement or a reduction of the area available for accumulation. Documents EP1390282 EP1632445 describe deflector means which occupy both inlet and outlet conveyors of the accumulation table, while in document EP2459472, the deflector means comprise a curved guide which extends only on the inlet conveyor of the accumulation table.
In documents EP1390282 EP1632445, the management of the position that said deflector means must take to ensure the proper accumulation or emptying of the table takes place by means of a controller which detects by sensors the number of input items and the number of output items and defines the speed of the two conveyors; the displacement of the deflector means is a function of the speeds of the two conveyors.
In document EP2459472, the management of the deflector means position is implemented by a controller which detects the signal of a sensor directed towards a movable abutment/reflector placed on the same deflector means; the position of said abutment/reflector is varied by the thrust of the bottles that act on the support means thereof.